Poilievre says he’s confident he’ll get to stay as Conservative leader
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he is confident there will be no leadership coup to oust him from his role, despite losing his own seat as a member of Parliament.
Poilievre lost his Ottawa-area seat of Carleton, which he had represented for nearly 21 years, to rookie Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy by 4,513 votes in the 2025 federal election.
When asked by Global News on Friday if he is worried about a challenge to his leadership, Poilievre said only “no.”
He then did not directly answer whether he believes he is the reason the Conservatives lost, instead pointing to the gains the party made.
“We got 2.4 million more votes, 25 more seats. We had the biggest vote count in our party’s history. The biggest increase in our party’s history. The biggest vote share since 1988,” Poilievre said.
“And we are going to continue to work to get over the finish line.”
Earlier this month, in his first public appearance post-election, Poilievre told reporters in French that there were some lessons to learn from the federal campaign, including the need to find ways to share the party’s message to a bigger audience of Canadians and expand the Conservative team.
However, he also seemingly maintained that his national campaign manager, Jenni Byrne, will not be one of the changes made post-election.
“She did a lot of hard work and our team has a lot to be proud of,” Poilievre said.
As a result of losing his seat, Poilievre is no longer a member of the House of Commons and cannot act as the Opposition leader in question period or participate in debate.
To get him back in the House, Conservative MP Damien Kurek resigned his seat of Battle River-Crowfoot in Alberta to allow Poilievre to run in a byelection.
“My belief remains today that Pierre Poilievre is the right man to be prime minister of Canada,” Kurek said in his farewell speech in Parliament on Thursday.
Kurek won his seat for the third time with 82.8 per cent of the vote share in the 2025 federal election, making it widely seen as a safe Conservative seat for Poilievre to win.
Due to federal law, Kurek must sit as an MP for 30 days before resigning his seat and triggering a byelection.
Prime Minister Mark Carney promised not to delay the byelection process at his first press conference post-election earlier this month.
“I will ensure that it happens as soon as possible,” Carney said. “No games. Nothing. Straight.”
Once the seat is vacated, the government has 11 to 180 days to call a byelection, making the earliest Poilievre could be elected the beginning of August.
Parliament is scheduled to be on summer break until Sept. 15.
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